As annunciators for remotely stationed internal combustion engines become more and more sophisticated, the management of power for activating annunciator circuits becomes more demanding. Existing annunciators are powered from the capacitive discharge (CD) ignition or a magnetic pickup from a fly wheel magnet, for example, from intermittent sources, such as photoelectric generators and from long-life batteries. The distribution of power from these sources to maximize battery life has already been considered. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,181,883; 4,336,463; 5,563,456; and 6,144,116.
Briefly, according to the present invention, there is provided an annunciator for an internal combustion engine comprising annunciator and shutdown circuits. The annunciator has input terminals for being powered by first and second power supplies, the second power supply being a long-life battery power supply. The annunciator comprises sensor input circuits sensing electrically detected conditions and generating fault signals in response thereto, a digital display, and switches for outputting a shutdown signal. At the heart of the annunciator and shutdown circuit is a logic device including a programmed microcontroller, which, in response to fault signals generated by the sensor inputs, causes output of a shutdown signal through the switches. The logic device is also configured to cause a digital display to display fault conditions. The annunciator and shutdown circuit is configured into normal and low power modes. In a normal mode, the entire circuit is powered. In the low power mode, the digital display and only portions of the logic device are powered. The logic device is designed to respond to fault signals causing the annunciator and shutdown circuit to switch to the low power mode upon sensing a fault signal has occurred.